1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to embossing dispensers for dispensing multiple rolls of rolled paper products and more particularly, to means for transferring the tail of the secondary roll into the nip and, therefore, a dispensing position when the primary roll is exhausted.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
A variety of dispensing cabinets for sequentially dispensing two rolls of sheet material such as paper towel are known in the prior art. Upon depletion of sheet material from one roll, dispensing automatically begins from the second roll. These dispensing cabinets typically include a pair of rollers forming a nip through which the sheet material is passed. These feed rollers are usually attached to a crank or a lever which is used to drive one or both of the rollers so as to draw a portion of the sheet material therethrough. Initially, the sheet material from one roll is placed into the nip and, as the initial roll approaches exhaustion, the leading end of the sheet material from the second roll is transferred into the nip. In such manner, dispensing of the sheet material from the second roll is commenced.
An example of such a prior art dispenser is U.S. Pat. No. 3,628,743 to Bastian. Such dispenser includes a rotatably mounted transfer roller which is moveable against one of the feed rollers in response to substantial depletion of the sheet material on the primary roll. The leading end of the sheet material from the reserve roll is positioned between the transfer roller and the feed rollers while the primary roll is being used. Upon movement of the transfer roller toward the feed rollers, the sheet material from the reserve roll is pressed against the drive roller and the drive roller, as it is turned by an attached crank or lever, advances the reserve sheet material toward the feed roller nip. A prong holding the end of the reserve roll sheet material prevents advancement of the sheet material past the feed rollers and thereby directs the sheet material to crowd into the feed roller nip for dispensing.
Although adequate for a typical rolled paper dispenser, the transfer means as taught by Bastian is not adequate for an embossing dispenser. The sheet crowding disclosed by Bastian of the reserve sheet material is insufficient to produce enough aggregate friction as a result of geometric restrictions to successfully induce the reserve roll of sheet into the nip formed by knuckle-type embossing rollers.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,010,909 also to Bastian teaches a modified transfer device which uses two transfer rollers connected to opposite ends of a pivotally mounted and spring biased linking member. The first transfer roller contacts one feed roller and the second transfer roller contacts the other feed roller thereby bunching the lead sheet of the reserve roll into the nip formed between the feed rollers. Again, due to the geometry of the nip between the embossing rollers of the present invention, successful transfer of the reserve roll sheet material into the nip would not be accomplished by this design of Bastian. The bunching of the sheet material becomes so great before it is pressed into the nip between the knuckled rollers that the resultant wad is too large to crank through the nip.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,487,375 to Rassmussen, et al. teaches a dispenser for sequentially dispensing multiple rolls of paper toweling. Such dispenser includes what are described to be a pair of mating rollers wherein one of the mating rollers includes a plurality of annular recesses. The transfer mechanism includes spaced tucking fingers corresponding with the annular recesses such that, on transfer, the tucking fingers drive the web into the recesses and thus cause the web to engage in the nip.